NEW SMILE

Now this is a proper gap! ;)  Ren starts her summer break with a new smile.

SUTHEP AT NIGHT

Finally had a chance to take a quick snap of the street scene that pops up every night on Suthep Road.  Dozens of food carts roll out to form a long row of mini-cafes, each lit with their own strand of lights.  So great to have all these options right outside (ok, maybe 100m) our door.

SCHOOL'S... OUT... FOR (THAI) SUMMER

Ren, sporting a widened gap in her smile, heading out to celebrate the thai summer school holiday - as of yesterday, the kiddos are off for the next four week.  We (the gang + Aunt Peggy!) all shared a huge bowl of not-quite-ice-cream at the Japanese dessert place in the neighborhood. 

POOL DAZE

This just about sums up our late afternoons these days - the condo pool is the best way to beat the heat!

EAM'S SEA CREATURES

 Eamonn came home from school last week with a bag full of sea creatures!  Some finger paint and googly eyes - et voila - whale, octopus, sea turtle, penguin. 

 Rounded out with a rain cloud - the only one we've seen around here for a while. 

And had to include a picture of the artist (and builder) himself.  Here seen realizing Eam and dad's Saturday morning goal of building an arch big enough for Eam to walk through.

CLASS PHOTOS :)

front row:  martin, aichi, naping, namami, runi, eamonn!, pawdee
back row:  shuzen, titi, apple, emma, tomtom, bhutan
teachers: kru kelsie, kru tukdta

front row: yuta, ren, thea, ylvi, napat, emma, plato, soma, kieo, lizzy, charlotte
back row: minyeong, agniya, amaglia, ella, sophia, seangdad, dylan, sydney, kiri, inoua, poppy
teachers: kru ta, kru william, kru nam

Yay, Panyaden! Cuties from Nursery room and Year 2 pictured above on a sunny, February day in Chiang Mai...

Ren and Eam each named all their classmates this evening when we received the photos - will ask them again tomorrow and we can caption the photo for posterity ;)   
(addendum: names added, apologies to many kiddos for my best-guess spelling)

BREAKFAST AND LANGUAGE

"This is too big of a spoon for me."

Eamonn reacting to errant soup spoon in his cereal bowl, instead of his preferred cucchiaino.  While such parenting missteps are bound to happen, E's fairly complex, idiomatic sentence caught us all off guard.

Add to that his daily interjection of thai - usually statements of protest (!) - and this guy is swimming in language these days.  And keeping his head admirably above water.    

SUNDAY MORNING MARKET

Some running and jumping fun from yesterday's visit to the hipster market at Baan KangWat, a collection of craft studios in our neighborhood.

Super pleasant place to spend some time with friends, whether playing on the sunken terraces, or having tea and nibbling snacks (Ren found pancakes with ice cream) while sitting in mod versions of vine-covered traditional wood buildings.

Not a bad way to start a Sunday.

HOUSE HUNTING IN... CHIANG DAO

Well, not really.
But we did head north this past weekend to check out our friends Gernot and Marisa's beautifully situated bungalows, with an eye toward living up in the mountains.

With the kiddos April break coming up, and Fee setting up the 'rural' phase of her research, we were checking out the possibility of spending the month enjoying the above view, romping into the nearby national park, exploring some nearby caves (the family-friendly ones ;)... and generally avoiding the smog and heat of Chiang Mai during the burning season.